by INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com One after after his inauguration as the Philippines’ 15th president, Benigno Simeon Aquino III has not won any fans from farmers organizations in the country. The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas minced no words in describing Aquino’s first year in office, saying that it was a “colossal failure” and that…
Tags: Stock Distribution Option
Farmers Demand New DOJ Probe of Mendiola Massacre, SC Action on Luisita Case
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
To the Supreme Court, they sent a letter addressed to Chief Justice Renato Corona appealing for the speedy resolution of the Hacienda Luisita case. To the Justice department, it was a letter to secretary Leila de Lima seeking the reopening of the 24-year-old Mendiola Massacre case.
Slideshow: Hacienda Luisita Farm Workers Trash ‘Financial Assistance’ by Cojuangco-Aquinos
Luisita Farmers Trash ‘Financial Assistance’
SC Justices Demolish Cojuangco-Aquinos’ Justifications for Giving Farmers ‘Pieces of Paper’ Instead of Land
By MARYA SALAMAT
Highlights in Wednesday’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court: Why farmers’ shares of stocks were diluted, why new workers who were not party to the SDO in 1989 were given new shares, why shares were distributed within 15 years and not within three years as the law required, why the estate should not have been fragmented, why PARC’s revocation order is not a violation of the Bill of Rights, and why HLI’s failure to get DAR’s “compliance certificate” could put SDO in trouble. 
Watch Bulatlat’s video primer on the SDO | Read more about the SDO
All Eyes Today on SC as Farm Workers, Cojuangco-Aquinos Battle Over Luisita
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Lawmaker says Supreme Court itself will be on trial. “The Hacienda Luisita land dispute is the first acid test of the Supreme Court under the Aquino administration. The Cojuangco-Aquinos have put the Supreme Court on trial here,” says Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano.
In Crafting ‘Sham’ Deal, Cojuangco-Aquinos Turned to Leaders Who Had Earlier Betrayed Farm Workers
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Kicked out of farmers’ groups and the workers’ union in Hacienda Luisita, the two key signatories in the compromise agreement supposedly representing the farmer beneficiaries have a history of betrayal against the farm workers and collaboration with the Cojuangco-Aquinos.
Militarization, Harassment Intensified in Luisita in Run-Up to Signing of ‘Sham Deal’
By MARYA SALAMAT
Weeks before the management of Hacienda Luisita announced the signing of the controversial “compromise agreement” with farm workers, the villages in and around the sugar plantation owned by President Benigno S. Aquino III and his family were subjected to militarization, the kind that sowed fear among the residents, particularly those opposed to the stock distribution option. Video Sidebar: Military Tries to Intimidate Luisita Farmers
Luisita Deal ‘a Travesty of Social Justice’
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Jobert Pahilga, lawyer of the farm workers’ group Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (Ambala), enumerates some of the provisions of the compromise agreement that are inimical to the interest of the farm workers.
Hacienda Luisita’s SDO: A Deceitful Scheme (A Video Primer)
Jobert Ilarde Pahilga, the lawyer of Hacienda Luisita farmers challenging the stock distribution option (SDO) being implemented in the plantation owned by the family of President Benigno S. Aquino III, explains in this “video primer” the SDO, why the Cojuangco-Aquino family was hell-bent on it, why the lives of the farmers did not improve in spite of it, and why these farmers and peasants are opposed to it. Watch the video
A History of Deception in Hacienda Luisita
Jobert Ilarde Pahilga, the lawyer for the farm workers in Hacienda Luisita, said HLI’s compromise agreement is “the third time that the Cojuangcos-Aquinos betrayed agrarian reform and the HLI farm workers.”
A Look Back: Hacienda Luisita, the SDO, and the Farmers’ Struggle for Land
By DABET CASTAÑEDA
In 2004, Bulatlat.com published a two-part investigative report on Hacienda Luisita, its troubled history, and the struggle of the farmers and workers for land and justice. The first part, For Land and Wages: Half a Century of Peasant Struggle in Hacienda Luisita, talks about the lives of the farmers and the events that led to the strike and massacre. The second part, Poorly Paid Workers Lose Jobs — and Homes, Too, exposes the toll the conflict had on the peasants.
Click here for more Bulatlat stories and multimedia content on Hacienda Luisita.